The Disadvantage of Advantage
Seymour Grass
Mrs. Thornhill: In that case, I think we should leave.
[Door buzzer sounds.]
Roger: Too late.
--
Yes, and you may have some of my dandruff, take it as Parmesan cheese to
sprinkle on your linguine, if you don't like it, that just this past
weekend, I was blessed, tickled, thrilled, moved many times to a point of
tears (more dandruff, anyone?) to see a play by Tennessee Williams which
many people (myself included) haven't even known to exist. But such a fan of
Williams as I've been, I thought I'd seen, or had knowledge of them all,
both the stellar successes and the bombs? I was wrong.
It turns out that when Williams' exquisitely poetic romance, *Summer &
Smoke* was going into production, he was just returning from Italy with a
completely redrafted, utterly transformed version of the play which he felt
was much to be preferred over the earlier version. But the play in its
original form having already been cast, was well into rehearsals, and there
was simply no way for Williams' capricious demand to be met, that the
original version be thrown out in option for the new. Thankfully the
producers would not hear of it, and so what posterity got was the two
masterpieces for the 'price' of one--and they are indeed two entirely
different plays, despite the conflation of character names, settings, and
something of the overall scheme of action.
Imagine it! *Eccentricities of a Nightingale*, this later draft of Summer &
Smoke simply went into a drawer, being sadly regarded by its playwright as a
mere redundancy, until by some mysterious process of discovery, it got out
unto the amazed view of WNET/ PBS, thence to be produced via the astute
direction of Glenn Jordan, for the crackling performances of Blythe Danner
and Frank Langella-- and who knew that made-for-TV cops and robbers guy
could act? Ah, but give an actor a fully fleshed role of great character
depth, and every untapped talent is a spring to be brought gushing to the
surface. That's just the thing about a play by Tennessee Williams, how he so
often allows actors and directors to amaze themselves.
Those familiar with the biography of Tennessee Williams, especially via the
excellent study of Lyle Leverich, *Tom: the Unknown Tennessee Williams* will
easily recognize in the character of "Alma," the female protagonist of these
two exquisite beauties of dramas, the personality of the playwright,
himself--the poor fellow!
Alas, it would seem that the lives of some people are by providence bound to
come gushing as fountains into humanity's view, ever so copiously
overflowing with a shower of beauties bringing rainbows refracted in prisms
of poems, the clear crystalline life substance for which we all thirst, and
it is ever such a wonder to behold--when seen at a distance from the poet,
as from a seat in the theatre to the stage. But as to the man, that
Promethean playwright himself and any chance for close and lasting
friendships? Forget it, they all only got drenched to the bone for the
effort.
Tennessee Williams spent his whole life being regarded as an "eccentric" (if
not an embarrassment) because of his extraordinarily effusive
enthusiasms--but there it is: except you have that in a poet, you have no
poet, no Summer & Smoke, or Suddenly Last Summer, and now, most
magnificently, *The Eccentricities of a Nightingale* tells the tale.
*Eccentricities of a Nightingale* is available on DVD from
http://www.kultur.com in their "Broadway Theatre Archive".
--
John http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/520b8/
Roger Thornhill: What do you mean there's no such person as George Kaplan?
I've tried on his suits, been in his hotel room; he's got short sleeves and
dandruff.
--
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